First Foundation Advisors Has $551,000 Stock Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

First Foundation Advisors decreased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 11.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,103 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 514 shares during the quarter. First Foundation Advisors’ holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $551,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC raised its holdings in Yum! Brands by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC now owns 2,664 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $357,000 after buying an additional 69 shares in the last quarter. OLD Point Trust & Financial Services N A raised its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. OLD Point Trust & Financial Services N A now owns 15,357 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,060,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. Investment Partners LTD. lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Investment Partners LTD. now owns 3,231 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $433,000 after purchasing an additional 72 shares during the last quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. boosted its position in Yum! Brands by 5.0% during the fourth quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 1,575 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $211,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares during the period. Finally, Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC grew its holdings in Yum! Brands by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC now owns 2,165 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $290,000 after purchasing an additional 82 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 8,638 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.36, for a total value of $1,367,913.68. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 2,970 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $470,329.20. The trade was a 74.41 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP David Eric Russell sold 5,000 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.66, for a total value of $793,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 11,960 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,897,573.60. This represents a 29.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 50,132 shares of company stock worth $7,952,685 in the last quarter. 0.31% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on YUM shares. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $146.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. Piper Sandler raised their price target on Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Cowen reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Guggenheim raised their target price on Yum! Brands from $155.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Yum! Brands from $138.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Sixteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $152.24.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of YUM stock opened at $145.74 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $151.79 and its 200 day simple moving average is $139.94. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $122.13 and a one year high of $163.30. The firm has a market cap of $40.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.92, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.90.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st were issued a $0.71 dividend. This is a positive change from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 21st. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.95%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 54.41%.

About Yum! Brands

Yum! Brands, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, develops, operates, and franchises quick service restaurants worldwide. The company operates through the KFC Division, the Taco Bell Division, the Pizza Hut Division, and the Habit Burger Grill Division segments. It also operates restaurants under the KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and The Habit Burger Grill brands, which specialize in chicken, pizza, made-to-order chargrilled burgers, sandwiches, Mexican-style food categories, and other food products.